LI  E>  RAR.Y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of    ILLINOIS 

977.2 
InZ 


!UL  HIST.  SURVH 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/environmentofabr83igle 


THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  IN  INDIANA 

WITH  AN  ACCOUNT  OF 
THE  DE  BRULER  FAMILY 


BY 
JOHN  E.    IGLEHART 
EUGENIA  EHRMANN 


Indiana  Historical 

Society  Publications 

Volume  8 

Number  3 


INDIANAPOLIS 
PRINTED   FOR  THE  SOCIETY 

1925 


Copyright, 

1926 

John  E.  Iglehart 


s~>        Jj  '  A  *        j 


Us-^4J 


<dfal*4^    erf  '  fc£     *£*>. 


<3i — a*- 


m 

HOLOGRAPH    LETTER,     SIGNE]D,     OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN.     REFERRING 
TO    HIS    "OLD    BOYHOOD    HOME"    IN    SOUTHWESTERN    INDIANA. 

By    Courtesy   of   Arthur   G.    Mitten.    Goodland,    Indiana,    Owner   of   the    Original. 


THE  ENVIRONMENT  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
IN  INDIANA 

By  John   E.   Iglehart 

Before  the  organization  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana 
Historical  Society,  in  1920,  Spencer  County  had  been  searched 
for  historical  material  upon  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  much  of 
little  value  had  been  written,  but  not  much  research  had  been 
made  there  by  resident  workers  other  than  Mrs.  Bess  V. 
Ehrmann.  This  society  early  devoted  its  attention  to  what  has 
been  called  "The  Lincoln  Inquiry."  The  thirteen  years  in 
which  Abraham  Lincoln  lived  in  southern  Indiana,  years  in 
which  he  developed  from  childhood  to  manhood,  obviously 
contributed  much  to  the  formation  of  his  character,  his  ideas, 
and  his  habits.  The  Inquiry  concerns  itself  with  the  influ- 
ences, general  and  personal,  to  which  he  was  exposed  during 
these  years.  The  difficulties  of  the  Inquiry  are  great:  much 
of  the  evidence  was  never  put  into  writing,  much  that  was 
written  has  perished,  and  the  Spencer  County  courthouse, 
with  many  records  of  importance,  was  burned  shortly  after 
the  Lincolns  moved  away.  At  present,  we  are  working  upon 
two  lines ;  the  general  condition  of  frontier  pioneer  life  in 
which  Abraham  Lincoln  grew  to  maturity,  and  the  biographies 
of  the  men  whom  the  Lincolns  knew  or  might  fairly  be  pre- 
sumed to  know.  Both  of  these  lines  are  involved  in  a  study  of 
Lemuel  O.  DeBruler  and  his  family. 


(147) 


148         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 
The  Frontier 

The  frontier  has  of  late  years  come  to  be  recognized  as 
one  of  the  most  important  factors  in  American  history.  Its 
influence  upon  individual  character  is  capable  of  scientific 
study ;  it  need  not  be  a  matter  of  mere  speculation. 

Our  western  literature  of  the  early  time  is  scant,  but  there 
were  a  few  writers  whose  vision  was  prophetic  of  the  future, 
whose  descriptions  are  applicable  to  the  class  of  people  who 
helped  create  the  environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Indiana, 
and  who  belonged  to  the  locality  and  the  people  of  whom 
Lowell  speaks  as  "strong  men  with  empires  in  their  brains." 

These  writers  forecast  what  appears  to  be  the  foundation 
of  the  doctrines  of  Frederick  J.  Turner  and  James  Truslow 
Adams  in  their  interpretation  of  the  frontier  in  American 
history,  doctrines  original  with  this  generation,  but  now  almost 
universally  accepted.  Willis  Mason  West,  in  his  History  of 
the  American  People,  says :  "Dr.  Turner  is  the  first  true  in- 
terpreter of  the  frontier  in  our  history."1  Many  other 
authorities  might  be  cited,  but  the  extraordinary  recommenda- 
tion of  Turner  by  James  Truslow  Adams  in  his  Revolutionary 
New  England,  applying  Turner's  doctrines  to  the  history  of 
New  England,  with  his  acknowledgement  to  Dr.  Turner,  is 
sufficient  authority  for  my  purpose. 

Our  earlier  national  histories  were  for  the  most  part  written 
by  New  Englanders  from  a  sectional  view  point  which  over- 
estimated Puritan  influence  in  the  development  of  national 
democracy  and,  so  far  as  I  have  read,  did  not  disclose  the  dom- 
inating influence  of  the  pioneers  even  in  the  development  of 
the  states  of  the  old  Northwest  Territory.2    But  before  the  New 


1  Willis  Mason  West,  History  of  the  American  People,  270  (New 
York,  1918.) 

2Woodrow  Wilson,  "The  Course  of  American  History"  in  Mere 
Literature  and  Other  Essays,  218  (Cambridge  Press,  1896).  Samuel 
McChord  Crothers,  "The  Land  of  the  Large  and  Charitable  Air,"  in 
The  Pardoner's  Wallett,  148  (New  York,  1905).  John  E.  Iglehart,  "The 
Coming  of  the  English  to  Indiana  in  181 7  and  Their  Hoosier  Neighbors," 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  144,   146. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  149 

England  historians  and  writers  generally  have  seemed  to  take 
cognizance  of  Turner's  great  interpretation,  Adams  adopts  it  in 
principle  as  Turner  applied  it  to  the  "New  West."  Adams 
accepts  its  great  influence  upon  American  democracy  and 
American  character,  including  the  Atlantic  Coast  states,  and 
applies  this  interpretation  to  the  history  of  Revolutionary  New 
England.3 

The  earlier  eastern  historians  did  scant  justice  to,  and  the 
American  public  was  slow  to  recognize,  the  work  of  the  west- 
ern pioneer  in  American  democracy.  Full  references  have  been 
made  by  me  to  this  subject  in  printed  addresses.4  Evidences  of 
a  change  of  attitude  are  multiplying.  The  Columbia  University 
Extension  Home  Study  Department  is  now  (1925)  announc- 
ing a  radio  course  upon  "The  Frontier  in  American  History," 
in  which  attention  is  called  to  the  continuing  factors  in  the 
expansion  of  the  American  people  from  the  time  when  a 
fringe  of  Europe  was  established  along  the  Atlantic  coastline 
of  North  America.  "The  main  theme  is  to  be  the  westward 
emigration,  the  occupation  of  a  vast  continent,  the  pressing 
forward  of  the  frontiers  and  its  part  in  the  building  of  the 


3See  the  acknowledgment  to  Dr.  Turner  in  James  Truslow  Adams, 
Revolutionary  Nezv  England,  1691-1776,  p.  9,  note  (The  Atlantic  Monthly- 
Press,  1923).  Mr.  Adams'  earlier  work,  The  Founding  of  New  England 
(1921)  for  which  he  was  awarded  the  Pulitzer  Prize  for  the  best  Ameri- 
can history  of  the  year  1921,  is  but  a  portion  of  Adams'  history,  com- 
pleted in  his  Revolutionary  New  England,  hailed  by  many  as  the  best 
treatise  on  the  history  of  New  England  in  the  seventeenth  century  writ- 
ten for  scholar  and  general  reader  alike. 

4Inaugural  Address  as  President  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  His- 
torical Society,  February  23,  1920,  Indiana  Historical  Commission,  Bulle- 
tin No.  16,  pp.  85  ff  (October,  1922),  Proceedings  of  the  Southzvestern 
Indiana  Historical  Society;  Annual  address  of  the  President,  January 
31,  1922,  ibid.,  pp.  10-21 ;  Annual  address  of  the  President,  February  28, 
1923,  Bulletin  No.  18,  pp.  63-88,  (October  1923),  Proceedings  of  the 
Southzvestern  Indiana  Historical  Society;  also  Indiana  Magazine  of  His- 
tory, Vol.  XV,  p.  144;  Ibid.,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  138-39,  wherein  is  criti- 
cized the  attitude  of  Albert  Bushnell  Hart,  who,  as  editor  of  Turner's 
Rise  of  the  New  West,  ignores  the  vision  of  Turner  upon  which  his 
fame  must  always  rest,  and  upon  which  James  Truslow  Adams  lays  the 
foundation  of  his  Revolutionary  New  England.  See  also  paper  of  Mrs. 
Charles  T.  (Dierdre  Duff)  Johnson,  "Moses  Ashworth,  Pioneer," 
Bulletin  No.  18,  p.  94  (October.  T923),  Proceedings  of  the  Southzvestern 
Indiana   Historical  Society. 


150         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

nation.1'"1  The  book  recommended  for  reading  in  the  course, 
David  S.  Muzzey's  An  American  History,  seeks  to  represent 
''the  newer  tendencies  in  historical  writing."  Of  three  special 
features  put  forward,  one  is  the  emphasis  "on  the  westward- 
moving  frontier  as  the  most  constant  and  potent  force  in  our 
history."6  Lecture  V  of  this  course  adopts  the  title  Dr. 
Turner  has  given  to  his  book,  "The  Rise  of  the  New  West," 
and  suggests  as  readings  to  supplement  the  lecture,  a  large 
portion  of  Dr.  Turner's  book. 

Mr.  Simeon  Strunsky,  a  very  versatile  and  able  essayist 
and  book  reviewer,  and  a  regular  contributor  to  the  New 
York  Times  Book  Review,  in  a  recent  article  finds  occasion 
to  refer  to  the  subject  of  the  Frontier  in  American  History, 
and  writes  of  it  as 

one  system  which  is  in  its  beginnings  but  which  seems  to  be  rapidly  forg- 
ing to  the  front.  It  had  its  first  application  in  the  rewriting  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  American  people.  When  fully  developed  it  may  come  to  be 
known  as  the  Philosophy  of  the  Frontier.  The  seed  was  sown  a  genera- 
tion ago  by  Professor  Turner's  essay  on  "The  Significance  of  the  Fron- 
tier in  American  History."  Among  those  who  have  cultivated  the  ground 
is  Professor  Paxson,  whose  latest  volume  on  the  subject  has  just  won 
the  Pulitzer  prize  in  history.  The  pioneer  in  the  role  of  chief  architect 
of  the  national  spirit  and  of  the  nation's  annals,  now  confronts  us  in 
the  textbooks  everywhere ;  *  *  *  *  Recent  historical  writings  have 
emphasized  the  importance  of  frontier  conditions  in  the  development  of 
American  life.  *  *  *  *  Professor  Turner  and  his  successors  have 
established  beyond  doubt  that  the  frontier  has  been  a  force  for  democ- 
racy and  radicalism  in  our  history.  It  has  nurtured  a  militant  individual- 
ism, as  against  the  trend  in  the  older  and  richer  part  of  the  country 
toward  caste  and  vested  interest.7 

A  valuable  scrap  of  testimony  is  furnished  by  a  most  un- 
willing witness,  which  adds  to  it  weight  for  that  reason.  The 
only  instance  I  have  found  anywhere  of  any  person  chal- 
lenging  the   Turner   doctrine,   as   it  may   for  convenience   be 


5The  course  is  given  by  John  A.  Krout,  instructor  in  History,  De- 
partment of  University  Extension,  Columbia  University,  from  Station 
WEAF,  New  York,  through  the  co-operation  of  the  American  Telephone 
and  Telegraph  Company. 

6Editorial    preface,    revised    edition,    1920. 

7"About  Books,  More  or  Less:  Frontiers  and  Limits,"  New  York 
Times  Book  Review,  July  5,  1925,  p.  4. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  151 

called,  is  in  a  magazine  article  which,  for  the  purpose  of  deny- 
ing the  truth  of  this  doctrine  and  contradicting  the  weight  of 
authority  conceded  to  be  wholly  against  the  writer,  states : 

For  thirty  years  American  historical  thought  has  been  dominated  by 
the  frontier  shibboleth.  The  theory  means,  in  all  essential  particulars, 
that  the  controlling  factor  in  American  life  and  character  has  been  the 
frontier.  First  pronounced  by  Professor  Frederick  J.  Turner,  at  a  meet- 
ing of  the  American  Historical  Association  in  1892,  it  has  come  to  be 
generally  accepted  and  to  serve  as  the  chief  guide  to  historical  interpre- 
tation.   No  one  has  criticized  it,  no  one  has  questioned  it.8 

William  Henry  Milburn,  the  blind  man  eloquent,  and  Judge 
James  Hall  lived  among  the  western  people,  were  in  sympathy 
with  them,  and  have  left  truthful  descriptions  of  the  pioneer 
in  the  old  Northwest,  as  well  as  in  Kentucky,  where  the  Indian 
wars  during  the  Revolution  were,  at  so  great  cost,  won  chiefly 
by  the  backwoodsmen  of  the  Alleghenies.  Milburn's  eloquent 
and  profound  interpretation  of  the  life  and  character  of  the 
westerner,  his  description  of  the  characteristics  of  the  western 
mind  and  of  the  schooling  of  the  wilderness  are  true  to  life, 
as  are  also  Judge  James  Hall's  fine  descriptions  of  the  western 
people  among  whom  he  lived.9  We  have  also  fair  and  im- 
partial accounts  of  the  backwoodsmen  of  the  Alleghenies  by 
Roosevelt,  to  whom  the  descendants  of  the  "Men  of  the 
Western  Waters,"  among  whom  are  the  active  members  of 
the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  recognize  a  last- 
ing obligation. 

The  western  type  of  mind  and  character  was  fully  developed 
in  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  educating  influence  of  wilderness 
life  affected  him  in  his  development  in  Spencer  County  from 
the  age  of  seven  to  twenty-one ;  long  before  the  latter  age  he 
showed  a  maturity  far  above  that  of  the  average  man  of 
twenty-one  years. 


8 John  C.  Almack,  "The  Shibboleth  of  the  Frontier,"  in  The  Histori- 
cal Outlook,  May,  1925,  p.  197.  Dr.  Almack  is  a  professor  of  history  at 
Leland  Stanford  University. 

9 See  William  Henry  Milburn,  The  Pioneers,  Preachers  and  People 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  (New  York,  i860),  and  The  Pioneer  Preacher 
(New  York,  1858)  ;  James  Hall,  Legends  of  the  West  (Cincinnati,  1869), 
and  The  Romance  of  Western  History  (Cincinnati,  1869). 


152         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

It  had  affected  Lincoln's  ancestors,  who  had  been  for 
several  generations  backwoodsmen  of  the  Alleghenies  and  men 
of  the  western  waters,  so  finely  described  by  Roosevelt,  and 
who,  according  to  the  same  writer,  were  of  a  distinct  race  or 
type  of  men  resembling  each  other  more  than  they  resembled 
pioneers  in  any  other  part  of  the  country.  It  affected  your 
ancestors  and  mine. 

"The  Lincoln  type  in  figure,  movement,  features,  facial 
make-up,  simplicity  of  speech  and  thought,  gravity  of  coun- 
tenance, and  integrity  and  truthfulness  of  life,  as  it  stands 
accredited  by  the  vast  number  of  writers  on  Lincoln,  is  in  a 
substantial  degree  to-day  [and  has  been  from  the  beginnings 
of  the  State]  a  Hoosier  type  in  southern  Indiana.  It  may 
still  be  found  in  the  judge  on  the  bench,  the  lawyer  at  the 
bar,  the  preacher  in  the  pulpit,  and  others  descended  from 
pioneer  stock  who  are  forceful  and  intelligent  leaders  of  the 
common  people."10 

The  majesty  and  splendor  of  the  lonely  forest  or  boundless 
prairie,  nature's  primeval  forms,  yet  untainted  and  undese- 
crated  by  the  play  of  human  passions  and  human  appetites, 
fresh  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  impart  to  the  human  soul 
a  grandeur  and  a  nobility  of  character  scarcely  acquired  in 
the  pursuits  of  trade  or  commerce,  or  in  the  common,  fixed, 
and  plodding  occupations  of  every  day  life. 

There  is  given  a  peculiar  muscularity  to  the  form,  and  vigor 
to  the  step,  and  freshness  to  the  thought.  The  will  is  un- 
trammeled,  scarcely  even  limited  by  the  thought  of  any  im- 
possibility ;  self-reliance  is  developed  to  the  very  highest  point, 
with  an  independence  of  action  and  being  outside  of  all  human 
aids.  The  pioneer  learns  to  preserve  and  cultivate  the  very 
utmost  of  the  vast  self-supporting  powers  of  humanity.  He 
must  depend  upon  himself  ;  if  he  is  wanting  to  himself,  he  is 
lost. 

A  new  country  demands  courage,  decision,  habits  of  keen 


10John  F.  Iglehart,  "The  Coming  of  the  English  to  Indiana  in  1817, 
and  Their  Hoosier  Neighbors,"  in  Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol. 
XV,  p.  146. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  153 

and  sleepless  observation ;  fertility  of  resource  and  versatile 
employment  of  various  powers  to  suit  changing  occasions,  are 
the  well-defined  characteristics  of  pioneer  life.11 

There  was  a  deep  human  sympathy  between  the  western 
pioneers,  who  were  compelled  to  share  with  each  other,  to  aid 
each  other  in  sickness  and  distress,  far  removed  from  the  com- 
forts and  necessities  of  the  older  sections  of  the  country. 

Historians  agree  that  the  wilderness  life  of  this  period 
developed  the  individuality  of  the  pioneer  in  an  extraordinary 
manner,  that  he  was  impatient  of  restraint,  which  was  in  many 
forms  so  obnoxious  to  him  that  to  escape  it  was  one  of  his 
reasons  for  having  left  the  Atlantic  Coast  or  European  life 
forever  behind  him.  This  applied  to  religious,  social,  econom- 
ic, and  political  conditions,  in  which,  as  a  pioneer  in  the 
remote  backwoods  on  free  land,  under  free  institutions,  he 
began  life  anew  and  created  new  conditions.  He  did  this  so 
well  that  he  laid  enduring  foundations  for  an  agricultural 
democracy  which  greatly  modified  the  democracy  of  the  At- 
lantic coast  states,  dominated  as  they  were  in  so  many  par- 
ticulars by  the  influences  of  European  life. 

New  conditions,  continually  recurring  with  each  advancing 
wave  of  western  emigration,  reacted  continuously  on  the  set- 
tlements farther  east  by  modifying  old  conditions  and  creating 
conditions  new  in  part  in  American  democracy,  bearing  the 
impress  in  a  substantial  degree  of  the  individuality  of  the 
pioneer. 

The  earlier  generation  may  be  described  in  Milburn's  words 
as  "men  strong  of  frame,  compact  and  muscular,  Herculean 
of  stature,  of  dauntless  courage,  of  determination  incapable 
of  discouragement  or  fear,  carrying  their  lives  in  their  hands, 
ready,  if  necessary,  to  crimson  the  soil  of  that  new  world 
with  their  heart's  blood.  There  is  hardly  a  more  striking 
commentary  upon,  or  interpretation  of,  the  pristine  radical 
elements  of  Anglo-Saxon  character  in  the  whole  range  of 
the  records  of  our  race,  than  is  to  be  found  in  the  history  of 


1:lMilburn,  Pioneers,  Preachers  and  People  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 

253- 


154         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

its  occupancy  of  Kentucky  and  the  Northwestern  Territory."12 

They  were — women  as  well  as  men — heroes  of  heroic 
blood,  who  left  the  Atlantic  Coast  states,  dissatisfied  with 
political  and  economic  conditions  and  the  poisonous  germs  of 
European  civilization  found  in  Colonial  life,  as  well  as  Euro- 
pean life,  and  who  sought  the  wilderness  far  beyond  the 
mountains  for  a  new  beginning  for  themselves  and  their 
children.  They  felt  the  breaking  of  the  ties  with  kindred 
whom  they  scarcely  expected  to  see  (and  seldom  did)  again, 
as  the  pathetic  letters  I  have  found  among  their  papers  show. 
They  left  all  the  comforts  of  old  world  community  life  be- 
hind them  to  struggle  with  the  forces  of  nature  and  the  danger 
of  wild  beasts  even  after  the  Indians  were  gone. 

Women  as  well  as  men  were  heroic.  Both  of  my  grand- 
mothers succumbed  prematurely  to  the  hardships  of  wilderness 
life.  One  left  an  infant  child ;  the  other  did  not  live  to  see 
all  her  children  grown  to  full  age.  My  mother  said  that 
while  she  lived  in  the  wilderness  of  Warrick  County,  until  she 
moved  to  Evansville  in  1849,  she  always  kept  a  watchful  eye 
upon  her  little  ones  who  were  able  to  wander  in  the  dooryard 
for  fear  some  straggling  bear  or  wolf  would  pick  them  up. 

Such  was  the  schooling  of  the  wilderness  and  of  frontier 
life  which  the  DeBrulers  learned.  Such  also  was  the  school- 
ing of  the  parents  from  whom  they  inherited  not  only  dis- 
tinguished ability,  but  sturdy  character  and  heroic  blood  as 
well. 

Of  these  writes  Walt  Whitman,  the  poet,  prophet,  and  in- 
terpreter of  the  life  of  the  new  race  in  the  new  world  created 
in  the  advancing   frontier: 

All  the  past  we  leave  behind, 
We  debouch  upon  a  newer  mightier  world,  varied  world, 
Fresh  and  strong  the  world  we  seize,  world  of  labor  and  the  march, 

Pioneers  !  O  pioneers  ! 

Have  the  elder  races  halted? 
Do  they  droop  and  end  their  lesson,  wearied  over  there  beyond  the  seas? 


12Milburn,  Pioneers,  Preachers  and  People  of  the  Mississippi   Val- 
ley, 255. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  155 


We  take  up  the  task  eternal,  and  the  burden  and  the  lesson, 
Pioneers  !     O  pioneers  ! 

O  you  daughters  of  the  West! 
O  you  young  and  elder  daughters !     O  you  mothers  and  you  wives ! 
Never  must  you  be  divided,  in  our  ranks  you  move  united, 

Pioneers  !   O  pioneers  ! 

O  to  die  advancing  on ! 
Are  there  some  of  us  to  droop  and  die?  has  the  hour  come? 
Then  upon  the  march  we  fittest  die,  soon  and  sure  the  gap  is  fill'd, 

Pioneers  !  O  pioneers  ! 

Neighbors  of  the  Lincolns  in  Indiana 


I  was  once  asked,  in  the  spirit  of  critical  inquiry,  to  name 
some  person  of  importance  in  southwestern  Indiana  whom 
Lincoln  might  have  known.  The  absence  of  easily  accessible 
historical  data  on  that  point,  and  a  failure  to  appreciate 
scattered  facts  known  to  exist  and  now  being  gathered  to- 
gether, seemed  to  raise  a  presumption  that  Lincoln's  associa- 
tions in  Spencer  County  were  almost  wholly  among  the  lowest 
type  of  society,  that  type  described  by  Dr.  Frederick  J. 
Turner,  the  father  of  Western  history,  as  only  the  "scum 
which  the  advancing  wave  of  civilization  bore  before  it." 

I  regard  it,  therefore,  as  one  of  the  most  important,  if  not 
the  most  important,  parts  of  the  "Lincoln  Inquiry"  to  collect 
a  series  of  biographies  of  known  neighbors  of  the  Lincoln 
family  in  Indiana.1"  My  preparation  of  this  sketch  ot  the 
DeBruler   family   has    opened   to   me   a   line   of    work   in   this 


]3There  exists  yet,  not  given  to  the  public,  a  mass  of  priceless 
source  material  relating  to  the  early  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  which 
has  been  gathered  during  a  life  of  earnest  devotion  to  the  work  by 
Jesse  W.  Weik  of  Greencastle,  who  collaborated  with  Herndon  in  the 
invaluable  life  of  Lincoln  and  who  is  recognized  as  having  contributed 
independently  in  his  publication  to  Lincoln  literature,  as  well  as  to  pre- 
serving this  source  material,  much  of  it  personally  gathered  by  Mr. 
Weik,  and  to  this  he  has  added  by  preserving  original  writings  of  the 
earliest  work  dating  since  Lincoln's  death.  It  is  an  enormous  com- 
pilation of  about  twelve  hundred  pages,  which  was  made  at  the  right 
time  when  no  other  person  had  collected,  and  which  cannot  now  be 
duplicated.  An  interpretation  of  this  evidence  when  Mr.  Weik  gives 
it  to  the  public,  which  it  is  hoped  he  may  do,  will  be  in  my  opinion 
necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the  life  and  character  of  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


156         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

direction  more  fruitful  than  I  had  anticipated,  a  line  of  con- 
trolling importance  in  the  Inquiry  and  one  which  must  be 
followed  up.  Enough  has  already  been  accomplished  to  make 
the  assumption  alluded  to  utterly  untenable. 

Mrs.  Bess  V.  Ehrmann  in  a  paper  upon  "The  Lincoln 
Inquiry"  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  His- 
torical Society,  October  14,  1924,  near  Lincoln  City  in  Spencer 
County,  gave  a  description  of,  and  bibliographical  references 
to,  the  thirty-four  papers  on  the  records  of  the  society  at  that 
time.  Together  with  the  poems  of  Mrs.  Albion  Fellows  Bacon 
upon  Lincoln  read  at  the  same  meeting,  it  has  attracted  atten- 
tion both  in  and  out  of  the  state.14  Calls  from  students  and 
prominent  historical  workers  for  copies  of  it  show  the  interest 
it  has  aroused.  Two  editorials  may  be  cited  which  express 
acceptance  of  our  interpretation  of  the  data  presented : 

In  this  exceedingly  valuable  paper  Mrs.  Ehrmann  summarized  all  the 
papers  presented  to  or  written  by  members  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana 
Historical  Society  upon  the  Lincoln  family  in  Indiana.  The  mere  recital 
showed  what  a  large  part  the  society  has  played  in  establishing  the  repu- 
tation of  the  Lincoln  family  and  of  Abraham  Lincoln  himself,  as  respect- 
able members  of  an  energetic,  forward-looking  community,  whose  worth 
was  recognized  by  their  neighbors.15 

As  a  result  of  the  ''Inquiry"  thirty-four  papers  have  been  written  in 
the  last  four  years,  some  of  them  published  in  the  local  press.  Some  of 
them  give  the  history  of  families  with  whom  Lincoln  was  intimately  as- 
sociated. Others  record  stories  of  Lincoln  which  have  been  handed  down 
in  families  living  in  the  Lincoln  neighborhood ;  some  include  letters  and 
documents  of  Lincoln  which  have  been  in  the  possession  of  people  in 
Spencer  county ;  sketches  of  men  of  prominence  with  whom  Lincoln  came 
in  contact  in  his  residence  there.   .    .    . 

[The  conclusion  reached  in  this  inquiry  as  summarized  by  Mrs. 
Ehrmann  is]  that  Lincoln  availed  himself  of  all  the  opportunities  exist- 
ing in  pioneer  life  in  that  section  when  he  lived  in  Indiana.  He  knew 
many  of  the  people  who  lived  within  a  reasonable  distance  of  his  home, 

14This  paper  and  Mrs.  Bacon's  poems  were  printed  in  the  Indiana 
Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XXI,  pp.  iff.  Mrs.  Bess  V.  Ehrmann,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society,  has  been 
among  the  leaders  and  practical  workers  in  it,  always  on  the  executive 
committee,  and  for  several  years  secretary  of  the  society.  No  person 
has  been  more  active  in  its  work. 

15Christopher  B.  Coleman,  Director  of  the  Indiana  Historical  Com- 
mission in  Indiana  History  Bulletin,  Vol.  II,  No.  2  (November,  1924), 
pp.  23-24. 


The  Environment  oe  Abraham   Lincoln  157 

which  for  that  time  might  be  considered  fifty  miles.  He  knew  about  all 
who  were  worth  knowing  among  them.  Abraham  Lincoln  knew  pretty 
well  all  that  was  worth  knowing  in  his  locality  in  1830  and  within  that 
radius,  and  all  that  could  be  learned  by  reading  the  papers,  intelligent 
inquiry  and  personal  acquaintance  with  the  better  class  of  people  whose 
history  has  not  (with  honorable  exceptions)  been  properly  recorded  up 
to  the  organization  of  this  society.  This  work,  which  is  not  yet  finished, 
may  well  be  suggested  as  a  working  model  for  any  local  historical  so- 
ciety in  the  state.16 

Judging  from  Mrs.  Ehrmann's  paper,  it  seems  that  the  final 
solution  of  the  Lincoln  Inquiry  will  not  be  a  difficult  matter, 
nor  long  delayed,  but  only  awaits  the  continuation  of  this 
society's  work.  This  fact  is  recognized  by  historians,  such 
as  Ida  Tarbell,  who  are  enthusiastically  in  sympathy  with 
our  work. 

After  the  publication  of  Mrs.  Bess  Ehrmann's  paper  and 
the  poems  on  Lincoln  in  Indiana  by  Airs.  Albion  Fellows 
Bacon,  I  sent  a  copy  of  the  magazine  to  Miss  Ida  Tarbell, 
who  supplementing  many  previous  splendid  tributes  to  the 
work  of  our  society,  says  in  part  in  her  letter  of  May  13, 
1925,  to  the  writer: 

I  like  Mrs.  Bacon's  poem,  and  Mrs.  Ehrmann's  paper  is  a  valuable 
contribution.  I  am  more  and  more  interested  in  your  Lincoln  inquiry, 
and  the  longer  I  roll  over  the  idea  in  my  mind,  the  more  convinced  I  am 
not  only  that  it  is  the  right  approach  to  any  study  of  Lincoln  in  South- 
western Indiana,  but  that  it  is  probably  a  much  wider  and  richer  field 
than  any  of  our  biographers  have  yet  appreciated.  I  hope  you  will  keep 
the  Inquiry  alive.  With  the  Society  behind  you,  as  you  say  it  is,  and 
with  such  a  fine  corps  of  workers,  I  am  sure  you  are  going  to  convince 
the  thoughtful  people,  sooner  or  later,  that  all  of  our  present  treatments 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Indiana  are  inadequate. 

Ida  Tarbell's  book,  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  printed 
in  advance  in  various  newspapers  in  the  summer  and  fall  of 
1923,  and  issued  in  book  form  February,  1924,  contained,  ac- 
cording to  the  announcements,  and  correctly,  two  reasons  for 
a  new  book  on  Lincoln,  one  the  story  of  seven  generations  of 
Lincoln's  courageous,  hardy,  industrious  pioneer  ancestors,  and 
the  other  the  story  of  his  own  early  manhood.  The  latter,  the 
story  of  Lincoln  in  Indiana  (chapter  12,  p.  139)  is  the  heart  of 


]6Kate  Milner  Rabb,  in  the  Indianapolis  Star,  November  26,  1924. 


158         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 

her  book.    On  page  150  she  discloses  a  new  field  to  biographers 
in  the  interpretations  and  work  of  this  Society. 

Carl  Sandburg's  new  book.  The  Unfathomed  Lincoln,  is 
now  (while  this  article  is  in  the  hands  of  the  printer)  coming 
from  the  press  in  advance  publication,  beginning  in  the  October, 
1925  number  of  the  Pictorial  Review,  with  an  important  fore- 
word in  the  preceding  September  number.  The  second  install- 
ment, the  November  number,  contains  a  most  important  sum- 
mary of  facts  and  knowledge  and  opportunities  accessible  to 
and  appropriated  by  young  Lincoln  after  he  left  Kentucky  in 
1816  and  before  he  moved  to  Illinois  in  1830.  Sandburg's 
story  so  far  printed  (December,  1925)  is  freed  from  the  bias 
of  the  Kentucky  historians  and  is  one  showing  deep  human 
sympathies,  and  to  some  extent  the  vision  of  an  interpreter  of 
many  vital  influences  which  undoubtedly  greatly  influenced  the 
"awakening  of  Abraham  Lincoln,"  as  Tarbell's  chapter  twelve 
calls  it. 

The  history  of  "Lincoln  in  Indiana"  has  been  written  by 
Rev.  J.  Edward  Murr,  a  southern  Indiana  man  from  the  Lin- 
coln country  and  of  the  Lincoln  type,  a  man  of  high  character 
who  has  spent  much  time  among  Lincoln's  neighbors,  in  the 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  beginning  with  volume  13,  page 
307,  and  continued  in  volume  14,  pages  13  and  148.  This  work, 
like  everything  else  relating  to  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Indiana,  has 
attracted  too  little  attention,  but  must  soon  receive  full  consid- 
eration, for  its  value  is  very  great.  He  also  has  in  a  sense  the 
vision  of  an  interpreter  ;  some  of  his  conclusions  are,  in  my 
judgment,  of  real  value  and  will  be  ultimately  accepted  by 
the  historians  as  correct,  and  some  evidence  preserved  by  him 
is  of  supreme  value. 

In  my  address  delivered  November  17,  1925,  at  Princeton, 
Indiana,  at  the  fall  meeting  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  His- 
torical Society,  not  yet  published,  I  spoke  inter  alia  at  some 
length  upon  this  important  subject,  embracing  also  certain  later 
and  more  specific  statements  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  Murr  made 
by  him  at  my  request  in  matters  of  evidence  of  supreme  im- 
portance already  referred  to  in  his  history. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  159 

Information  is  accumulating  about  the  outstanding  contem- 
poraries of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  Spencer  County ;  Lemuel  Q. 
and  James  P.  DeBruler,  Daniel  Grass,  Thomas  B.,  and  Alex- 
ander Britton,  John  W .  Graham,  John  Pitcher,  and  others.17 
These  men,  with  many  others  then  in  Spencer  County,  were 
equal  to  the  best  pioneer  settlers  in  any  of  the  new  states. 
To  them  public  attention  is  now  directed  in  the  searchlight  of 
the  Lincoln  Inquiry.  I  have  no  doubt  Abraham  Lincoln  knew 
most,  if  not  all,  of  these  people.  They  were  not  hard  to  get 
acquainted  with  in  that  wilderness  life. 

In  addition  it  is  contemplated  by  some  of  our  ablest  workers 
to  have  sketches,  more  or  less  complete  as  facts  justify,  of 
a  large  number  of  the  prominent  families  living  between  Cory- 
don  and  New  Harmony,  and  north  as  far  as  Jasper,  then 
called  Enlow's  Hill.  There  was  free  communication  between 
the  Lincolns  and  the  Enlows.  This  would  aid  in  building  up 
the  intellectual  side  of  Lincoln's  environments.  It  would 
furnish  side  lights  that  led  Lincoln  in  his  search  for  knowl- 
edge. 

The  movement  of  persons  and  trade  north,  south,  east,  and 
west  in  southwestern  Indiana,  influencing  the  people  of 
Spencer  County  in  the  third  decade  and  connecting  them 
directly  with  Boonville,  Evansville,  Princeton,  New  Harmony, 
and  Vincennes,  furnished  full  opportunities  necessary  for  a 
man  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  type,  as  the  world  now  knows  him, 
to  obtain  the  experience,  information,  and  knowledge  which 
he  is  known  to  have  acquired  when  he  reached  the  state  of 
Illinois,  and  for  the  existence  of  which  no  other  explanation 
has  been  or  can  be  given.  By  this  I  mean  that  for  the  space 
of  fifty  miles  or  greater  in  all  directions  from  the  Lincoln 
farm,  contact  with  people  and  sources  of  information  were 
accessible  to  Lincoln.  Vincennes  was  still  the  mother  city  of 
a  large  territory.  Nearly  all  of  the  public  men  of  Indiana, 
commonwealth  builders,  were  then  living  in  southern  Indiana, 


l7See  list  in  History  of  Warrick,  Spencer  and  Perry  Counties,  258  f  f 
(Chicago,  1885). 


160         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

a  considerable  number  of  them  in  Vincennes  and  Corydon, 
some  of  them  in  New  Harmony,  Princeton,  Evansville,  Boon- 
ville,  and  Rockport.  There  was  a  stage  line  from  Evansville 
to  Vincennes  after  1824,  continuously  making  two  trips  a 
week  each  way  until  railroads  were  built.  Evansville  was  the 
receiving  and  discharging  point  for  New  Orleans,  and  the 
Ohio  River  traffic  for  Vincennes  and  southwestern  Indiana 
and  intermediate  territory,  as  well  as  a  wider  territory,  as 
newspaper  advertisements  of  the  time  show. 

New  Harmony  was  during  that  time  at  its  zenith,  a  point 
of  world-wide  importance,  where  resided  men  of  national 
reputation  and  where  high  intellectual  standards  were  main- 
tained in  both  magazine  and  newspaper  literature  then  pub- 
lished. In  1822,  a  road  was  built  from  New  Harmony  to 
Boonville,  across  Vanderburgh  County,  in  two  sections,  one 
section  extending  from  the  Warrick  County  line  to  the  Posey 
County  line,  centering  in  Saundersville,  the  heart  of  the  first 
British  settlement  in  Indiana. 

Corydon  was  the  state  capital  until  1825,  and  after  the  capital 
was  moved  to  Indianapolis,  it  was  still  the  residence  of  many 
prominent  people,  and  travel  was  continuous  between  that 
point  and  Vincennes  and  Evansville  by  roads  which  went  past 
the  Lincoln  farm. 

As  a  medium  of  communication  and  as  a  present  source  of 
information,  attention  should  be  called  to  the  weekly  news- 
papers published  from  1820  to  1830  in  Evansville,  New  Har- 
mony, Vincennes  and  Corydon,  the  files  of  which  are  now 
accessible,  and  perhaps  for  other  periods  also,  though  complete 
files  are  not  preserved.18 

George  R.  Wilson  of  Dubois  County,  high  authority  on  the 
history  of  this  period  and  location,  in  a  letter  to  the  writer, 
says  that  there  is  proof  that  the  Lincolns  had  acquaintances 
in  Dubois  County. 

While   revising  this   paper,    I   have,   in   answer   to   a   letter 


^Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  138-43,  and  notes.  In- 
diana Historical  Commission,  Bulletin  No.  18,  pp.  73  ff,  Proceedings  of 
Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  161 

informing  him  of  my  intention  to  quote  him,   received   from 
Mr.  Wilson  a  letter  almost  all  of  which  I  quote: 

Judge  L.  Q.  DeBruler  was  a  leading  lawyer  and  judge  at  the  Du- 
bois county  bar.  The  name  DeBruler  is  remembered  in  Dubois  county 
with  high  honors  and  profound  respect.  A  few  American  pioneers  of 
the  family  name  yet  live  in  Dubois  county  and  they  are  unusually  highly 
respected. 

The  Condits  were  hotel  people  at  Jasper.  It  seems  to  me  I  can 
locate  a  Condit  grave  among  the  Enlows,  in  the  City  Cemetery  at  Jasper. 
James  H.  Condit  in  1840,  conducted  the  Indiana  Hotel,  where  it  now 
stands,  at  the  S.  W.  corner  of  5th  and  Jackson  Street,  Jasper.  When 
our  courthouse  was  destroyed  by  fire  August  17,  1839,  court  was  held  at 
the  Condit  Hotel,  and  Judge  L.  Q.  DeBruler  was  an  attorney  at  that 
court.19 

Dubois  county  was  unusually  closely  connected  with  Spencer  and 
Warrick  counties.  We  drew  many  of  our  American  pioneers  from  Spen- 
cer and  Warrick.  Before  1830,  there  were  no  Germans  in  Dubois  county. 
When  they  came  many  Americans  returned  to  Spencer  and  Warrick 
counties. 

There  came  from  Warrick  county  (as  land  owners)  such  men  as 
John  J.  Chappell,  Jerome  B.  Bristow,  Byram  E.  L.  Condit.  David  Evans, 
John  Armstrong  Graham,  Christopher  C.  Heath,  Sam'l  A.  Hull,  Jesse 
Hubbard,  Philip  Huber,  Jonathan  H.  Julian,  Benj.  F.  Julian,  Levi  Lock- 
hart,  Benj.  McCool,  Larkin  Montgomery,  Timothy  Nolan,  Samuel 
Palmer  and  John  W.  Shrode. 

There  came  from  Spencer  county,  as  land  owners,  Richmond  L. 
Crosley,  John  Garland,  Wm.  Jones,  Thos.  G.  Kissinger,  Valentine  Licht, 
Henry  C.  McKinley,  Alford  Mylor,  Stephen  Ravenscraft,  Xavier  Stro- 
nger, Philip  J.  Saltsman,  Joseph  Schonhoff,  Michael  Spade,  Wm. 
Thompson,  George  Tuihtheran,  and  the  Enlows.  I  do  not  mean  these 
were  all,  nor  that  they  lived  in  Dubois  county,  but  that  they  entered  land 
there.  , 

James  Gentry,  on  April  16,  1818,  became  the  owner  (by  entry)  of 
160  acres  of  land  about  four  miles  south  of  Huntingburg.  It  was  the 
first  land  entry  in  Cass  township  and  on  the  Lincoln  Trail  between  Lin- 
coln City  and  the  Enlows'  mill  at  Jasper.  The  improved  Jasper  and 
Evansville  state  road  permits  you  to  see  all  of  this  entry  and  passes 
within  60  rods  of  it  for  one-half  a  mile.  The  Enlows  entered  Jasper  in 
1829;  they  also  entered  land  all  about  the  Freeman  Markers  between 
Huntingburg  and  Dale,  as  did  the  Bruner  family  that  is  said  to  have 
had  a  joint-ownership  with  Lincoln  in  a  long  rifle,  said  to  be  at  Wash- 
ington now. 

Corroborative  of  the  interpretation  and  conclusions  arrived 
at  in  our  vision  of  this  work,  and  relating  to  the  opportunities 
which    were    presented    to    Lincoln    in    his    environments    in 


19George  R.  Wilson,  History  of  Dubois  County,  162   (Jasper,  Indi- 
ana, 1910). 


162         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 

Indiana,  is  a  recent  article  by  Meredith  Nicholson,20  in  which 
one  of  the  ablest  of  our  Indiana  writers  deals  with  the  factor 
of  what  he  calls  "a  healthy  curiosity  which  winged  the  genius 
of  Lincoln  for  immortality,"  and  he  correctly  states  that  what 
a  youth  really  seeks  and  finds  and  assimilates  for  himself, 
whether  he  has  known  the  stimulus  of  college  training  or  has 
done  his  own  exploring,  leads  into  a  field  where  standardiza- 
tion and  method  are  helpless.  Mr.  Nicholson  is  plowing  in 
the  same  field  with  us. 

The  entire  eight  counties  of  Southwestern  Indiana,  including 
Lincoln's  county  of  Spencer,  were  in  the  same  judicial  cir- 
cuit for  judges  and  prosecuting  attorneys,  and  the  lawyers, 
the  leading  men  of  the  time — commonwealth  builders  as  well 
as  lawyers — followed  the  judge  on  the  circuit  on  horseback. 
During  Lincoln's  time  practically  all  of  the  leading  lawyers 
in  these  counties,  including  frequently  lawyers  from  Vincennes 
and  occasionally  from  Henderson  and  Louisville,  practiced 
at  Rockport  and  Boonville,  where  Lincoln  attended  court. 
James  Hall,  one  of  the  most  competent  and  impartial  writers 
of  that  time,  was  for  many  years  circuit  judge  in  southern 
Illinois  among  people  whom  both  he  and  Eggleston  describe 
as  much  the  same  as  those  in  southern  Ohio  and  Indiana  where 
they  settled  near  the  river.  In  describing  court  scenes  in  this 
section  of  the  country  during  Lincoln's  time,  he  says : 

The  seats  of  justice  were  small  villages,  mostly  mere  hamlets,  com- 
posed of  a  few  log-houses,  into  which  the  judge  and  bar  were  crowded, 
with  the  grand  and  petit  jurors,  litigants,  witnesses,  and,  in  short,  the 
whole  body  of  the  county — for  in  new  counties  every  body  goes  to 
court."21 

Oliver  H.  Smith,  describing  the  interest  of  the  people  of 
Indiana  in  the  early  days  when  the  population  was  settled 
chiefly  in  the  southern  third  or  half  of  the  state,  says  the 
people  came  hundreds  of  miles  to  see  the  judges  and  to  hear 


20"Is  Our  Great  National  Motive  Power  Being  Educated  Out  of 
Us?"  an  article  in  the  Evansville  Sunday  Press,  July  19,  1925,  one  of  the 
Pre-Eminent  Author  Series  of  articles  by  American  writers. 

21Hall,  Legends  of  the  West,  Preface  to  Second  Edition. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham    Lincoln  163 

the  lawyers  "plead"  the  cases,  as  they  called  it.22 

The  court  records  in  these  counties  usually  showed  that 
lawyers  were  formally  admitted  to  the  bar  upon  their  first 
appearance  in  the  court,  and  always  when  they  came  before  the 
court  from  other  counties  to  transact  law  business.  Unfortunate- 
ly the  records  of  Spencer  were  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  entire 
record  of  the  admission  of  lawyers  during  Lincoln's  time  in 
Spencer  County  was  destroyed  ;  but  Perry  County,  lying  east 
of  Spencer,  farther  removed  from  Vanderburgh  and  Gibson 
counties  where  most  of  the  lawyers  in  the  counties  mentioned 
lived  during  Lincoln's  time,  has  preserved  its  record  of  admis- 
sions to  the  bar  ;  so  has  Warrick  County  ;  and  the  list  taken 
from  the  latter  counties  may  be  fairly  assumed  to  describe 
men  who  practiced  during  the  same  period  at  Rockport  in 
Spencer  County.  From  these  sources  and  from  the  record  in 
local  history  of  various  particular  trials  it  is  established  that 
the  leading  lawyers  were  frequent,  and  many  of  them  regular, 
practitioners  at  Rockport  in  Spencer  County  during  Lincoln's 
time.23 

John  A.  Brackenridge  was  one  of  the  distinguished  lawyers 
of  the  southern  Indiana  bar  during  Lincoln's  residence  there. 
It  has  never  been  doubted  as  a  matter  of  family  and  local 
history  among  the  old  settlers  of  Spencer  and  Warrick  coun- 
ties, that  Lincoln  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the  residence  of 
John  A.  Brackenridge  in  Warrick  County,  that  he  heard  him 
plead  at  the  bar  at  Boonville,  and  borrowed  law  books  from 
him.  The  Reverend  J.  Edward  Murr,  author  of  "Lincoln 
in  Indiana,"  quotes  Wesley  Hall  as  stating  that  young  Lincoln 
frequently  made  pilgrimages  to  Brackenridge's  home,  borrowed 
his   law  books,    sometimes   remained  throughout   the   day  and 


22Hon.  O.  H.  Smith,  Early  Indiana  Trials  and  Sketches,  7  (Cincin- 
nati, 1858). 

^History  of  Warrick,  Spencer  and  Perry  Counties,  1885,  p.  74. 

See  also  "John  A.  Brackenridge,"  by  Mrs.  Eldora  Minor  Raleigh, 
one  of  the  leading  writers  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  So- 
ciety, and  daughter  of  a  sister  of  Mrs.  John  A.  Brackenridge,  Indiana 
Historical  Commission,  Bulletin  No.  16,  pp.  60-66  (October,  1922)  ; 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  p.  147,  note;  Ibid.,  p.  14T. 


164         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

night  reveling  in  the  mysteries  of  the  law ;  and  also  that 
Lincoln  obtained  his  first  opportunity  of  reading  Shakespeare 
on  these  visits,  and  that  he,  Hall,  had  heard  Lincoln  recite 
Shapespeare.24  Mrs.  Raleigh,  in  her  sketch  of  Brackenridge 
says  that  the  latter  lent  Lincoln  law  books,  and  that  a  friend- 
ship was  established  between  them  which  was  never  broken.25 
When  the  Reverend  Murr's  attention  was  called  to  the  fact 
that  his  authority  for  the  statement  above  mentioned  in  his 
"Lincoln  in  Indiana"  was  not  stated  with  definiteness,  he 
wrote  me  a  letter  stating  that  his  authority  for  the  statement 
was  Wesley  Hall,  who  made  the  statement  to  him,  and  that 
Hall  was  a  man  of  the  highest  character  for  integrity  and 
truth,  and  his  word  was  reliable.  Mrs.  Raleigh,  on  being  in- 
terrogated for  definite  evidence  of  her  statement,  says  that 
the  fact  has  always  been  recognized  as  family  history  in  the 
Brackenridge  family  and  has  never  been  doubted.  She  is 
indignant  that  at  this  late  date,  after  all  of  the  witnesses  of 
the  time  are  dead,  any  question  should  be  made  about  it. 

From  1824  to  1830,  the  fourth  judicial  circuit  in  Indiana 
was  composed  of  the  counties  of  Dubois,  Pike,  Gibson, 
Posey,  Vanderburgh,  Warrick,  Spencer,  Perry,  and  Crawford. 
One  judge  and  one  prosecuting  attorney  filled  the  office  in 
all  of  those  counties.  With  two  terms  of  court  a  year,  as 
Judge  Hall  says,  the  judges  and  the  prosecuting  attorneys  and 
lawyers  following  them  around  the  circuit,  were  much  of  the 
time  on  horseback.  David  Hart,  a  descendant  of  one  of  the 
Hart  brothers  of  Richard  Henderson  and  Company  fame,  was 
presiding  judge  in  those  counties  from  1818  to  1819,  when 
he  resigned,  having  disqualified  himself  to  hold  the  office 
under  the  constitution  of  Indiana  by  issuing  a  challenge  to 
fight  a  duel.  Judge  Hart  died  about  1820,  and  his  widow 
and  children  returned  to  Kentucky.  He  was  succeeded  as 
president  judge  by  Richard  Daniel  of  the  Princeton  bar,  who 
held  the  office  from  January  2,  1819,  to  February  21,  1822. 


^Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XIV,  p.  159. 
25Bnlletin  No.  16,  p.  63  (October,  1922),  Indiana  Historical  Commis- 
sion. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln  165 

He  was  succeeded  in  February,  1822,  by  James  R.  E.  Goodlett, 
who  held  the  office  until  December  31,  1831.  When  these 
judges  were  not  upon  the  bench  they  were  practicing  as  law- 
yers at  the  bar. 

The  prosecuting  attorney  of  Spencer  County  from  August 
9,  1824  to  August  14,  1826  was  Amos  Clark,  who  was  suc- 
ceeded on  the  latter  date  by  Charles  I.  Battell,  who  held  the 
office  till  December  30,  1832. 

Richard  Daniel  was  a  leading  practitioner  of  the  bar  in  all 
of  the  counties  named  during  all  of  Lincoln's  time  in  Spencer 
County.  Amos  Clark  was  the  leader  of  the  Evansville  bar 
during  all  of  Lincoln's  time  in  Indiana  and  for  more  than 
ten  years  later,  when  he  removed  to  Texas.26 

In  the  legislature  of  Indiana  in  1818,  what  is  now  Spencer 
County  was  represented  in  the  lower  house  by  Daniel  Grass, 
who  was  succeeded  in  1821  by  Thomas  Vandever,  representing 
Spencer,  Perry,  Dubois,  and  part  of  Warrick ;  in  1822,  by 
John  Daniel,  same  counties ;  in  1823,  by  David  Edwards,  rep- 
resenting Spencer,  Perry,  Dubois  counties  and  Lewis  town- 
ship, part  of  Warrick  County ;  in  1824,  by  William  McMahan, 
same  counties;  in  1825  and  1826  by  John  Daniel,  Spencer, 
Perry,  and  Dubois  counties ;  in  1827,  Isaac  Veatch  represent- 
ing Spencer  and  Perry  counties.  Isaac  Veatch  was  the  father 
of  General  James  C.  Veatch,  a  very  able  and  distinguished 
citizen  of  Rockport.  Samuel  Frisby  represented  the  same 
counties  in  1828 ;  Richard  Polke  in  1829  and  John  Pitcher 
in  1830. 

The  state  senators  were  Ratliff  Boon,  1818,  representing 
Posey,  Vanderburgh,  Spencer,  Warrick,  and  Perry  counties ; 
Elisha  Harrison,  1819  to  1821 ;  Daniel  Grass,  1822  to  1825, 
representing  Perry,  Spencer,  Dubois,  and  part  of  Warrick ; 
Daniel  Grass,  1826,  representing  Perry,  Spencer,  and  Craw- 
ford   counties;    John    Daniel,    1827    to    1830,    and    in    1830, 


26History  of  Vanderburgh  County,  83-85  (John  E.  Iglehart,  Day- 
ton. 1923),  published  as  Volume  III  of  Logan  Esarey's  History  of 
Indiana. 


166         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

Samuel  Frisby  representing  the  same  counties.27 

There  is  at  this  late  period  no  means  of  accurately  judging 
the  comparative  influence  of  John  Pitcher  and  John  A.  Brack  - 
enridge  on  Abraham  Lincoln  during  his  life  in  Spencer 
County.  Pitcher,  like  Brackenridge,  was  a  man  of  excellent 
ancestry  and  had  the  best  education  possible  for  a  man  of  his 
time.  He  came  from  Connecticut,  where  he  studied  law  with 
Judge  Reeves,  the  well-known  law-book  writer.  Pitcher  was 
a  man  of  antislavery,  Brackenridge  of  proslavery  sentiments. 
In  view  of  the  importance  of  the  slavery  question  at  that 
time,  it  is  more  than  likely  that  Pitcher  exercised  a  good  deal 
of  influence  over  Lincoln  in  that  direction,  pointing  out  clearly 
correct  ideals  and  discussing  questions  of  interest  at  the  time 
in  conversation  with  Lincoln.  Although  Pitcher  never  ac- 
quired the  social  habit  of  the  westerner,  more  readily  acquired 
by  Brackenridge,  but  throughout  his  life  maintained  always  a 
stern  and  dignified  reserve,  he  was  a  fine  conversationalist, 
and  easy  of  access.  He  was  one  of  the  great  trial  lawyers  of 
Indiana,  altogether  the  ablest  man  in  public  life  who  lived  in 
Spencer  County  during  Lincoln's  time.  My  judgment  is  that 
both  Pitcher  and  Brackenridge  exercised  important  influence 
upon  the  ideals  and  life  of  Lincoln  during  this  important 
formative  period.28 

Daniel  Grass  was  probably  more  of  a  commonwealth  builder 
and  political  influence  in  Spencer  County  than  any  other  man 
in  it  from  the  earliest  history  of  Rockport  until  Lincoln  left 
Indiana.  There  can  be  no  serious  doubt  about  Lincoln's 
knowledge  of  him,  and  acquaintance  with  him,  although  there 
is  no  direct  testimony  of  which  I  have  knowledge  to  that 
particular  point.  The  circumstances  of  Grass's  life  and  his 
relation  to  matters  of  public  interest  justify  this  conclusion. 2!) 


27 History  of  Warrick,  Spencer  and  Perry  Counties,  489. 

28 Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XVII,  pp.  145,  146,  and  T47. 
See  also  letter  from  H.  C.  Pitcher,  "Judge  John  Pitcher"  in  Evansville- 
and  Its  Men  of  Mark,  406-7   (Edward  White  ed.,  Evansville,  1873). 

29The  reader  may  be  reminded  here  that  it  is  upon  the  doctrine  of 
probabilities  that  Butler  founds  his  argument  in  favor  of  natural 
religion. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham    Lincoln  167 

The  life  of  Daniel  Grass  has  been  written  and  will  be  pub- 
lished in  the  proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  His- 
torical  Society. 

Joseph  Lane  was  one  of  the  distinguished  men  of  southern 
Indiana,  a  rival  of  Ratliff  Boon  and  Robert  M.  Evans  in 
public  life.  When  Vanderburgh  County  was  created,  Boon 
legislated  him  out  of  his  (Boon's)  legislative  district,  putting 
his  farm  into  Vanderburgh  County,  which  accounts  for  the 
irregular  eastern  boundary  of  that  county.  Lane  was  intimate 
with  Grass,  Boon,  Evans,  and  Hugh  McGary ;  in  a  conference 
these  men  settled  their  rivalries  sufficiently  to  permit  the  crea- 
tion of  Vanderburgh  County  as  it  now  exists  so  as  not  to  in- 
terfere with  the  ambitions  of  Grass  in  Spencer  County  and 
of  Boon  in  Warrick  County.  Lane's  account  of  the  organi- 
zation of  Vanderburgh  County  is  the  only  reliable  one  in 
existence.30 

Lane  worked  in  the  clerk's  office  in  Warrick  County 
shortly  after  the  organization  of  Warrick  County,  was  very 
active  in  politics  in  the  third  decade,  was  justice  of  the  peace 
in  Vanderburgh  County,  member  of  the  legislature  (defeating 
Robert  M.  Evans  for  the  place),  was  appointed  governor  of 
Oregon  during  the  Mexican  War,  and  became  United  States 
Senator  upon  admission  of  Oregon  to  the  Union.  He  was 
candidate  with  Breckenridge  against  Lincoln  and  Hamlin  in 
1860.  It  is  probable  that  Lincoln  knew  Lane ;  he  must  have 
had  the  opportunity ;  and  Lane  was  one  of  the  most  popular, 
as  well  as  one  of  the  foremost  men  in  this  section  in  the  third 
decade,  during  Lincoln's  life  in  Indiana. 

John  M.  Lockwood  was  a  member  of  the  family  of  the 
wool  carder  Evans,  at  Princeton,  and  knew  Lincoln  very  well. 
The  circumstance  of  their  meeting,  with  a  romance  incidental 
to  Lincoln's  visit   to   the   wool   carder   Evans,   has  been   fully 


30History  of  Vanderburgh  County,  101-2  (Brant  and  Fuller,  1889) 
One  of  William  W.  Woollen's  finest  sketches  is  of  Joseph  Lane,  Bio- 
graphical and  Historical  Sketches  of  Early  Indiana,  412-25  (Indian- 
apolis, 1883). 


168         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

described.31  I  remember  John  M.  Lockwood  very  well.  My 
father  knew  him  well.  He  lived  in  Evansville  from  1830 
until  a  later  period,  when,  having  accumulated  a  fortune,  he 
went  to  Mount  Vernon ;  there  he  died,  having  acquired  prom- 
inence in  that  community.  He  was  a  giant  in  size,  something- 
like  six  feet,  four  inches  high  as  I  remember,  and  was  proba- 
bly as  tall  as  Lincoln  when  the  two  as  young  men  met  together 
at  the  wool  carder's  house  and  place  of  business  in  Princeton. 

The  leaders  of  the  English  settlement  in  north  Vanderburgh 
County  are  recognized  as  men  of  prominence  in  this  section 
by  the  early  historians,  including  George  Flower,  who  wrote 
a  history  of  the  English  settlement  in  Edwards  County,  Illi- 
nois.32 Among  others  were  the  Hornbrooks,  Maidlows,  Ingles, 
Wheelers,  Hilliards,  Potts,  James  Cawson,  and  Dr.  Hornby. 
Very  recently  there  came  into  the  custody  of  Mrs.  Bertha 
Cox  Armstrong  a  considerable  portion  of  the  library  of 
James  Cawson,  a  civil  engineer  and  school  teacher  from  Lon- 
don, who  brought  into  the  English  settlement  in  1818  a  library 
from  England,  to  which  he  added  continuously  while  in 
America.  This  library  has  been  donated  to  the  Vanderburgh 
County  Museum  and  Historical  Society,  and  will  be  the  sub- 
ject of  proper  description  by  one  of  the  ablest  members  of 
that  Society.33 

General  Washington  Johnston  was  well  known  throughout 


;uThe  daughter  of  John  M.  Lockwood,  deceased,  has  furnished  an 
account' to  the  Vanderburgh  County  Museum  and  Historical  Society  of 
Lincoln's  visit  at  Princeton,  to  Evans,  with  whom  Lockwood  worked  in 
1827  and  earlier.  Mr.  Jesse  W.  Weik  published  in  December,  1912,  in 
the  Success  magazine,  an  article  called  "When  Lincoln  Met  the  Wool 
Carder's  Niece."  A  copy  of  the  article  was  read  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society  at  Newburgh,  May,  1925,  by 
Lockwood's  granddaughter,  Mrs.  Lottie  Edson  Erwin. 

32George  Flower,  History  of  the  English  Settlement  in  Edwards 
County,  Illinois  (Chicago  Historical  Society  Collections,  Vol.  I,  Chi- 
cago, 1882.) 

33Mrs.  Armstrong  is  a  great-granddaughter  of  George  Potts,  who 
married  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Cawson,  and  who  was  a  partner  with  Cawson 
in  business.     The  library  of  the  Cawson  family  came  into  his  custody. 

See  Ida  Tarbell's  reference  to  the  influence  of  this  settlement  upon 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  her  book  In  the  Footsteps  of  the  Lincolns,  150  (New 
York,  1924).     See  also  Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XV,  p.  89. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  169 

all  of  the  counties  in  Southwestern  Indiana,  including  Spencer 
County,  practiced  in  all  of  the  counties,  was  one  of  the  most 
prominent  men  in  the  organization  of  Indiana  Territory  and 
the  State  of  Indiana,  was  a  land  speculator  in  many  of  the 
counties,  and  was  one  of  the  most  influential  and  active 
men  in  Indiana  Territory.  His  services  in  putting  the  anti- 
slavery  clause  into  the  first  constitution  of  Indiana  were  of 
the  greatest  value.  It  is  probable  that  Lincoln  knew  him  and 
his  work.34 

Two  other  probable  acquaintances  of  the  Lincoln's  may  be 
mentioned :  Elisha  Harrison,  a  second  or  third  cousin  of  Wil- 
liam Henry  Harrison,  was  one  of  the  most  influential  men 
in  southwestern  Indiana  from  1816  to  1825,  about  the  period 
of  his  death.  When  Vanderburgh  county  was  created  he  was 
in  the  lower  house  of  the  legislature ;  at  the  same  time,  Boon 
was  in  the  state  senate.  He  was  very  ambitious  in  politics, 
whereby  he  incurred  the  enmity  of  Ratliff  Boon,  and  was 
prevented  from  realizing  his  political  hopes.  Robert  M.  Evans 
was  a  man  of  great  prominence  in  southwestern  Indiana.  Joe 
Lane,  in  a  letter  written  some  forty  years  ago  to  the  Van- 
derburgh County  Biographical  and  Historical  Society,  said 
of  Robert  M.  Evans  and  Daniel  Grass,  that  they  belonged  to 
the  whole  state  of  Indiana.35 

Lincoln  was  a  Jacksonian  Democrat  when  he  left  Indiana  in 
1830 ;  his  representative  in  Congress  was  Ratliff  Boon,  who  is 
described  as  an  excellent  campaigner,  very  suave  and  polite 
in  his  address  among  the  people,  though  very  combative  with 
his  political  opponents,  a  political  boss,  who  ruled  practically 
without  interference  in  southwestern  Indiana  during  Abraham 
Lincoln's  residence  in  Spencer  County.  He  was  in  Congress 
during   all    of    Jackson's    time,    from    1824    to    1838,    except 


34See  the  paper  by  George  R.  Wilson,  "General  Washington  John- 
ston," read  before  this  Society  in  February,  1924,  and  published  in  the 
Indiana  Magazine  of  History,  Vol.  XX,  pp.  123-53,  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  the  history  of  the  state. 

35A  sketch  of  Robert  M.  Evans  is  found  in  History  of  Vanderburgh 
County,  48-50.     For  a  sketch  of  Elisha  Harrison,  see  Ibid.,  pp.  53-57. 


170         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 

one  term  of  two  years  when  he  was  beaten  by  one  vote.30 

An  acquaintance  of  Abraham  Lincoln  about  whom  little  has 
been  written — and  part  of  that  erroneous — is  Judge  Lemuel 
Quincy  DeBruler.  Two  papers  upon  Judge  DeBruler  and  the 
DeBruler  family  are  incorporated  in  this  sketch  as  supple- 
menting what  has  hitherto  been  published  about  the  human 
environment  of  Lincoln  in  Indiana.37 


36For  a  sketch  of  Ratliff  Boon  see  paper  by  William  L.  Barker  in 
Indiana  Historical  Commission,  Bulletin  No.  16,  pp.  72-78  (October, 
1922),  Proceedings  of  the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society.  A 
fuller  life  of  Boon  is  now  in  preparation. 

37These  papers  were  read  at  the  sixth  annual  meeting  of  the  South- 
western Indiana  Historical  Society,  February  6,  1925,  at  Evansville. 

The  paper  upon  Judge  Lemuel  Quincy  DeBruler  was  prepared  at  the 
writer's  request  by  Mrs.  Eugenia  Ehrmann,  only  surviving  child  of  Judge 
DeBruler,  with  the  aid,  especially  upon  the  Judge's  legal  career,  of  Judge 
E.  M.  Swan.    It  was  read  by  Mrs.  George  C.  Dunlevy. 


JUDGE  LEMUEL  QUINCY  DEBRULER 
By  Eugenia  Ehrmann 

The  first  DeBruler  of  whom  we  have  any  record  was  a 
French  Huguenot,  who  came  to  this  country  about  1740,  and 
settled  near  Baltimore.  He  married  there,  and  among  his 
offspring  were  twin  sons,  one  of  whom  was  the  great-grand- 
father of  Lemuel  Quincy,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who  with 
his  twin  brother,  James  Pressbury  DeBruler,  was  born  in 
Orange  County,  North  Carolina,  on  September  17,   1817. 

There  is  no  record  to  explain  just  why  this  branch  of  the 
family  drifted  to  North  Carolina,  but  poor  soil  and  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery  were  undoubtedly  factors  in  their  coming  to 
Indiana.  Some  of  the  relatives  owned  slaves,  a  fact  so  ab- 
horrent to  the  others  that  they  were  persuaded  to  free  them 
and  all  move  together  to  a  free  state.  They  arrived  in  Indiana 
in  October,  1818,  but  did  not  stop  until  they  reached  Pike 
County,  where  they  lived  several  years.  Afterward,  their 
father,  Wesley  DeBruler,  entered  land  in  Dubois  County, 
about  eight  miles  from  Jasper,  where  he  reared  five  sons  and 
one  daughter. 

His  twin  sons  had  visions  of  a  professional  career  early  in 
life,  and  studied  early  and  late,  helping  out  their  meager 
schooling  with  private  instruction  from  any  one  who  could 
or  would  instruct  them.  Lemuel  Q.  (commonly  called 
"Quincy")  chose  the  law,  but  his  twin  brother,  James  P., 
chose  the  medical  profession.      So  their  paths   separated   for 

(r?i) 


172         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

the  first  time  in  their  lives.  Quincy  read  and  studied  law 
faithfully  for  several  years,  and  finally  began  practicing  his 
profession  about  1840,  in  which  year  he  married  Angeline 
Condit.  He  was  frequently  heard  to  say  that  he  would  be 
satisfied  when  he  had  saved  a  thousand  dollars,  but  he  did 
not  retire  at  that  point.  Notwithstanding  his  liberality  and 
generous  public  spirit,  he  acquired  a  modest  fortune,  yet  his 
untiring  energy  impelled  him  on  until  he  finally  died  in  the 
harness  as  an  active  lawyer. 

James  graduated  from  Jefferson  Medical  College  in 
Philadelphia  and  located  in  Rockport,  Indiana,  where  he  mar- 
ried Sarah  Graham,  daughter  of  Judge  John  Graham.  He 
persuaded  his  brother,  Quincy,  that  Rockport  had  many  ad- 
vantages over  Jasper,  being  a  river  town  with  superior  busi- 
ness prospects,  while  Jasper  was  far  inland.  So  the  lawyer 
moved  to  Rockport  about  1850,  having  attended  courts  there 
frequently  before.  Here  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1846. 
He  succeeded  so  well  that  he  could  not  be  induced  to  make 
another  change  when  his  brother,  Doctor  James,  moved  to 
Evansville  in  1858 ;  but  remained  at  Rockport,  engaging  in 
his  profession  until  his  death  on  August  10,  1875,  being  sur- 
vived by  his  wife,  two  sons,  Curran  A.  and  Oscar,  and  one 
daughter,  Eugenia,  wife  of  Dr.  E.  D.  Ehrmann.  Mrs.  Ehr- 
mann is  the  only  member  of  the  family  now  living  (1921). 

Judge  Lemuel  Q.  DeBruler  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney 
in  his  circuit,  embracing  Spencer  and  eight  other  counties, 
August  27,  1846,  and  held  the  office  two  years.  He  was 
elected  judge  of  the  common  pleas  court  of  his  district  upon 
the  organization  of  that  court  under  the  new  constitution  of 
Indiana,  October  26,  1852,  and  was  reelected  October  26, 
1856,  retiring  at  the  close  of  the  year  1860;  but  his  preference 
however  was  for  the  active  life  of  the  advocate.1 


1Leander  J.  Monks,  Courts  and  Lawyers  of  Indiana  (Indianapolis) 
1916),  Vol.  I,  p.  XXXIX,  Index,  gives  the  middle  initial  erroneously  as 
O.  instead  of  Q.,  and  also  gives  the  career  of  a  "Samuel  S.  DeBruler"  as 
a  separate  and  distinct  individual.  There  was  no  such  person;  "Samuel 
S."  is  a  mistaken  version  of  "Lemuel  Q." 


The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln  173 

In  his  practice,  he  soon  won  his  place  as  the  leader  of  the 
bar  in  his  county,  at  that  time  the  ablest  bar  the  county  had 
ever  had.  He  was  engaged  in  almost  every  case  of  importance 
here  as  well  as  in  the  courts  of  other  counties  and  states.  He 
valorously  crossed  swords  with  other  able  legal  gladiators  of 
his  day,  among  them  the  far-famed  John  A.  Brackenridge, 
John  Pitcher,  Daniel  B.  Kumler,  Charles  Denby,  Asa  Iglehart, 
General  James  M.  Shackleford,  the  brilliant  James  M.  Shank- 
lin,  Charles  L.  Wedding,  Edwin  R.  Hatfield,  Judge  George  L. 
Reinhard,  and  other  eminent  practitioners,  intellectual  legal 
giants,  lawyers  of  great  force,  ability,  and  deep  learning,  nor 
did  he  battle  without  signal  success. 

In  stature  he  was  slightly  above  the  average ;  rather  slender, 
but  capable  of  endurance  ;  with  dark  complexion ;  an  eye  like 
an  eagle,  keen,  penetrating,  and  awe-inspiring ;  a  clear,  ringing, 
clarion  voice ;  language  short,  sharp,  and  incisive  as  an  Italian 
stiletto.  In  his  earnest,  impassioned,  eloquent  speech  and 
fervid  oratory — ornate,  logical,  and  masterful — he  swept  oppo- 
sition before  him  with  an  avalanche  of  flame,  and  carried 
conviction  to  the  hearts  of  his  hearers. 

His  nearest  equal  in  oratory  and  advocacy  in  the  bar  of 
his  county  was  his  son  and  partner,  Curran  A.  DeBruler,  who 
had  superior  advantages  and  opportunities.  He  was  gradu- 
ated from  various  institutions  of  learning,  including  Cam- 
bridge. Brilliant,  alert,  fiery  but  polished,  analytical,  classical, 
flowery  as  the  meads  in  May,  his  burning  eloquence  shattered 
antagonism  like  a  thunder-bolt.  Although  his  legal  ability, 
learning,  fine  sense  of  justice,  and  humane  heart  later  made 
him  judge  of  the  First  Judicial  Circuit  of  Indiana,  and 
although  he  was  an  able  and  capable  judge,  he  was  in  that 
position  out  of  his  true  orbit. 

Quincy  DeBruler  was  a  Union  man  in  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion  and  although  his  deafness  prevented  his  enlisting, 
he  was  active  in  encouraging  and  inspiring  the  soldiery  and 
defense  of  the  nation.  Shortly  after  Lincoln's  second  election, 
he  went  to  Washington  on  legal  business.     There  he  went  to 


174         The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln 

the  White  House,  to  pay  his  respects.  President  Lincoln, 
bringing  his  hand  down  on  his  shoulder  with  a  resounding 
whack,  said,  "Sit  down,  sit  down,  DeBruler,  I  want  to  talk — 
I  know  some  of  the  things  you  have  done  for  the  Union, 
and  I  want  news  of  Spencer  county." 

He  was  public  spirited  and  a  valuable  asset  to  the  public 
welfare.  It  was  chiefly  through  his  efforts  and  instrumental- 
ity that  his  county  got  its  first  railroad  and  better  connection 
and  communication  with  the  outside  world.  He  ran  a  race 
with  Mr.  Kirby,  of  Cincinnati,  one  of  the  railroad  promoters, 
to  see  which  one  should  throw  the  first  shovelful  of  dirt.  The 
Judge  lost  because  his  spade  caught  on  a  root. 

The  church,  also,  and  all  other  commendable  enterprises 
enjoyed  his  munificence.  He  could  never  refuse  an  appeal 
for  help,  although  he  frequently  responded  against  his  better 
judgment.  More  than  one  motherless  child  was  taken  into 
his  home  and  kept,  sometimes  for  two  or  three  years,  until 
some  other  provision  was  made  for  it.  Such  is  a  brief  out- 
line of  the  career  of  Quincy  DeBruler  as  a  lawyer. 

The  life  of  Quincy  DeBruler  was  made  unique  by  a  series 
of  strange  circumstances  and  coincidences.  He  was  of  a 
family  which  boasted  of  many  sets  of  twins.  He  had  two 
aunts,  Polly  and  Arabella  DeBruler,  who  were  twins,  and 
who  died  on  the  same  day  and  were  buried  in  the  same  grave. 
His  sister,  Sarah  Sharp,  had  twin  daughters  who  died  in  their 
infancy.  His  brother,  Richard,  had  twin  daughters,  Emma 
and  Ella,  and  also  a  daughter,  Lucy  Craig,  who  was  the  mother 
of  twins ;  and  another  brother,  Thomas  F.  DeBruler,  had  twin 
daughters,  Mary  and  Sarah,  the  former  of  whom  is  still  living ; 
they  were  so  like  each  other  that  their  parents  could  scarcely 
distinguish  them,  and  it  was  not  until  they  were  grown  that 
acquaintances  could  tell  them  apart. 

Judge  Lemuel  Quincy  DeBruler  and  his  twin  brother, 
Doctor  James  P.,  were  so  like  in  appearance,  that  it  was  dif- 
ficult to  distinguish  between  them.  Both  became  deaf  in  both 
ears  in   1859.     The  Judge  had  a  fall  and  broke  his  shoulder 


The  Environment  of  Abraham    Lincoln  175 

and  two  ribs,  and  the  next  day  his  brother,  James,  suffered 
precisely  the  same  injuries.  Both  had  a  peculiar  and  obstinate 
eruption  on  the  forehead  at  the  same  time.  James  died  on 
August  10,  1874,  and  as  a  result  of  the  many  coincidences  in 
their  lives,  the  Judge  with  a  premonition,  or  rather  presenti- 
ment, began  to  prepare  his  business  and  mundane  affairs  to 
follow  his  beloved  brother.  And  his  anticipation  was  soon 
verified — he  was  taken  sick  one  year  from  the  day  that  James 
was,  and  of  the  same  disease,  and  died  one  year  from  the  day 
of  his  brother's  death.  Every  small  detail  connected  with  his 
sickness  was  identical  with  that  of  his  brother. 

Throughout  the  Judge's  sickness,  and  until  he  was  laid  to 
rest,  the  yard  and  porches  were  full  of  people,  of  high  and 
low  degree,  both  black  and  white,  many  with  tears  streaming- 
down  their  faces,  mute  testimony  of  the  affection  and  esteem 
in  which  he  was  held.  The  song,  ''Only  remembered  by  what 
I  have  done,"  sung  at  his  brother's  funeral  was  sung  also  at 
his.  He  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery  at  Rockport,  and 
loving  friends  keep  his  memory  green.  In  remembrance  of 
Ouincy  DeBruler,  all  can  say : 

"None  knew  thee  but  to  love  thee, 
Nor  named  thee  but  to  praise." 


THE  DEBRULER  FAMILY  AS  TYPICAL  PIONEERS 
By  John  E.  Iglehart 

I  have,  since  I  have  been  a  member  of  the  Indiana  bar, 
now  past  fifty-four  years,  regarded  the  DeBruler  family  as 
one  of  the  distinguished  families  of  the  state,  embracing  as 
it  has  Judge  L.  O.  DeBruler  and  his  son,  Curran  A.  DeBruler 
(who  was  also  Judge,  but  whom  I  will  call  by  his  first  name 
to  distinguish  him),  and  Dr.  James  P.  DeBruler,  the  twin 
brother  of  Judge  L.  Q.  DeBruler — all  distinguished  by  in- 
herited talents  of  very  high  order  and  by  achievement  of  high 
success  which  came  with  a  lifetime  of  labor;  all  men  of  high 
ideals  and  the  graces  of  social  life  which  mark  the  gentleman, 
which  Chesterfield  truly  says  it  takes  three  generations  to 
develop. 

I  have  known  most  of  the  prominent  members  of  the  South- 
western Indiana  bar  during  a  period  of  fifty-five  years. 
Those  I  did  not  know  personally  I  knew  by  reputation  among 
their  older  associates,  particularly  my  father,  in  whose  law 
office  I  entered  after  graduation  from  college  in  June,  1868, 
before  I  was  twenty  years  old  and  with  whom  I  was  associated 
until  his  death  nearly  twenty  years  later. 

Social  life  then  among  lawyers  in  the  courtroom  and  in  their 
offices  was  more  highly  valued  than  now,  and  widely  differ- 
ent from  the  present ;  for  the  pioneers  at  the  bar  who  had  out- 
lived the  pioneer  age,  continued  their  old  habits  and  customs 
until  the  new  generation  took  their  place. 

(176) 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  177 

As  early  as  1870,  and  before  any  railroad  was  built  in  Posey 
County,  before  the  days  of  abstractors  of  title  in  this  section, 
I  visited  Mt.  Vernon  and  examined  titles  to  a  strip  of  land  on 
the  Wabash  River,  upon  which  the  Louisville  and  Nashville 
Railroad  is  now  located.  In  these  trips  I  used  both  the  steam- 
boat and  the  stage.  I  was  in  and  about  the  courthouse,  met 
the  lawyers,  had  law  business  dealings  with  some  of  them,  as 
well  as  those  in  other  counties.  I  remember  one  occasion, 
about  1871,  when  John  Pitcher  was  about  the  age  that  I  am 
now,  in  his  full  mental  powers  but  not  so  active  physically 
as  I  am  now.  I  sat  next  to  him  upon  the  top  plank  of  a  high 
board  fence  surrounding  the  public  square  and  the  old  court- 
house in  Mt.  Vernon,  a  fence  five  planks  high,  with  the  posts 
sawed  off  evenly  so  that  a  plank  nailed  on  the  top  of  the  posts 
made  a  comfortable  seat  in  the  sun  in  the  cool  air  of  spring 
or  fall.  On  the  other  side  of  Pitcher,  as  I  remember,  was 
lawyer  Milton  Pearse.  I  took  part  in  a  conversation  lasting 
about  an  hour  and  a  half,  which  I  greatly  appreciated  as  I 
realized  (but  not  quite  so  well  then  as  I  do  now),  who  John 
Pitcher  was  and  had  been.  I  am  the  only  living  lawyer,  I 
think,  who  heard  Pitcher  and  Harrow  try  cases  in  court,  and 
I  knew  even  then  the  standing  of  Judge  DeBruler,  about 
twenty-five  years  younger  in  age  and  experience  than  Pitcher. 

In  the  middle  fifties  my  father  was  on  the  bench  and 
traveled  the  circuit.  DeBruler,  Pitcher,  and  the  other  leading 
lawyers  practiced  before  him.  When  DeBruler  and  Pitcher 
were  each  on  the  bench  in  different  circuits,  my  father  prac- 
ticed before  them.  His  knowledge  of  them  was  complete,  and 
in  my  dual  associations  of  social  and  professional  life  with 
him,  I  came  to  know  all  he  could  teach  me,  and  particularly 
his  estimate  of  lawyers.  Using  this  and  other  means  of  in- 
formation as  well,  I  formed  my  estimate  of  Judge  DeBruler. 
I  saw  him  occasionally,  and  I  learned  the  esteem  in  which  he 
was  held  by  his  brethren,  which  has  remained  with  me  always 
the  same. 

Dr.  James  P.  DeBruler  was  my  father's  family  physician 
until  the  doctor  died  in  the  early  part  of  1874,  while  I  was 


178         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 

still  living  for  the  last  year  under  the  paternal  roof.  Mrs. 
Ehrmann's  sketch  of  Judge  DeBruler  recognizes,  so  far  as  a 
comparison  can  be  made  of  the  two  brothers  in  different 
professions,  that  they  were  equals.  While  the  doctor  had  not 
the  opportunities  of  the  judge  in  public  speaking,  he  was  a 
fine  conversationalist ;  with  his  humor  and  good  cheer  I  have 
seen  him  change  the  atmosphere  of  gloom  in  the  sick  room 
into  cheerfulness  more  rapidly  than  could  medicine.  In  the 
community  in  which  he  lived,  he  was  generally  and  most 
favorably  known ;  throughout  the  medical  fraternity  of  the 
state,  he  was  recognized  as  a  worthy  leader.  He  stood  in  the 
front  rank  of  his  profession  and  was  a  fit  representative  of 
one  of  the  distinguished  families  of  the  state. 

His  son,  Claude  Graham  DeBruler,  was  one  of  the  editors 
and  proprietors  of  the  Evansville  Journal.  At  his  death  the 
proceedings  of  the  Press  Club  and  expressions  of  esteem  by 
leading  men  in  his  profession  filled  a  page  in  the  Journal. 
I  knew  him  intimately  at  home,  in  college,  and  in  the  business 
world  later,  and  he  showed  the  same  traits  with  which  I  have 
characterized  the  DeBruler  family.  His  only  son,  James,  a 
very  promising  young  physician,  died  at  the  threshold  of  his 
career. 

The  only  living  descendant  of  Claude  or  Dr.  James  P. 
DeBruler  is  Mrs.  Bertha  DeBruler  Donavan  of  Evansville,  a 
worthy  descendant  of  such  an  ancestry. 

I  knew  Dr.  DeBruler's  wife,  Mrs.  Sarah  Graham  DeBruler, 
daughter  of  Judge  John  W.  Graham  of  Rockport.  Our 
families  were  near  neighbors  in  Evansville,  and  socially 
intimate.  I  knew  well  her  two  sisters,  Mrs.  James  W.  Wart- 
man  and  Miss  Nannie  Graham,  all  pioneers  of  the  early 
pioneer  age,  and  I  speak  in  no  mere  spirit  of  eulogy  when  I 
say  that  in  intelligence,  culture,  and  the  highest  social  stand- 
ing, these  ladies  ranked  as  did  the  DeBruler  gentlemen. 

I  emphasize  this  because  local  history  records  that  Judge 
John  W.  Graham  was,  for  an  unusually  long  period,  from 
1825  till  1838,  lay  judge  at  Rockport  of  the  Spencer  Circuit 


The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln  179 

Court,  the  only  court  of  record  in  the  county  to  which 
Abraham  Lincoln  from  1825  to  1830,  when  he  left  Spencer 
County,  frequently  came  as  an  interested  spectator.  The  posi- 
tion of  lay  judge  was  filled  by  election,  and  in  those  days  the 
office  itself  indicated  that  the  incumbent  was  one  of  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  county.  His  biography  should  be  written  for 
the  Southwestern  Indiana  Historical  Society.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe  Lincoln  knew  Graham  well. 

I  knew  Curran  DeBruler  as  a  lawyer,  and  as  a  man,  longer 
and  more  intimately  than  any  others  of  the  family,  as  we  were 
both  members  of  the  Evansville  bar.  I  have  seen  him  under 
practically  all  of  the  tests  to  which  a  trial  lawyer  may  be  sub- 
jected. I  have  tried  cases  with  him  and  against  him  as 
counsel,  more  often  against  him.  He  lacked  from  childhood 
the  fine  physical  development  of  his  father,  and  infirmity 
shortened  his  life,  but  as  a  silver-tongued  orator  of  the  first 
rank  he  rose  above  all  physical  weakness  and  was,  with  per- 
haps the  exception  of  Blythe  Hynes,  who  died  in  1876,  re- 
garded as  the  most  brilliant  orator  and  jury  advocate  of  the 
Southwestern  Indiana  bar. 

He  was  one  of  the  first  graduates  of  the  Harvard  Law 
School  to  practice  in  this  section,  and,  endowed  as  he  was  with 
the  logical  mind  necessary  to  high  success  as  a  lawyer,  with  a 
fine  discrimination  in  the  use  of  words,  with  the  greatest 
fluency  of  speech,  his  law-school  training  gave  him  a  marked 
advantage  which  aided  in  making  his  legal  arguments  as 
effective  with  the  judges  as  were  his  eloquent  appeals  with 
juries.  His  ethical  standards  were  all  that  could  be  expected 
from  a  man  of  such  distinguished  ancestry.  A  local  historian 
in  Spencer  County  makes  an  excellent  comparison  between  the 
father  and  son  as  lawyers,  giving  them  the  highest  and  sub- 
stantially equal  rank  as  lawyers.1 

Judge  DeBruler  married,  on  March  7,  1841,  at  Jasper,  in  Du- 
bois County,  Hulda  Angeline  Condit,  a  granddaughter  of  Uzal 
Condit  (who  was  born  in  New  Jersey,  but  in  1805  moved  to 


^History  of  Warrick,  Spencer  and  Perry  Counties,  1885,  pp.  7,22-23. 


180         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 

Kentucky  with  his  children)  and  the  daughter  of  James 
Hervey  Condit,  who  was  a  pioneer,  first  in  Warrick  County, 
later  in  Dubois  County.  The  latter  was  a  successful  trader  in 
tobacco  and  for  many  years  loaded  a  flatboat  in  the  fall  for  the 
New  Orleans  market  and  spent  the  winters  there.  Condit  also 
conducted  a  hotel  in  Jasper.2 

Lincoln  knew  Judge  DeBruler  personally.  The  incident  of 
Judge  DeBruler's  meeting  with  Lincoln  furnished  by  Mrs. 
Eugenia  Ehrmann,  Judge  DeBruler's  only  living  child,  is 
interesting;  but  unfortunately  there  is  no  record  extant  as  to 
when  and  how  Lincoln  and  Judge  DeBruler  became  acquainted. 

Eugenia  DeBruler,  daughter  of  Judge  DeBruler,  married 
Dr.  Edward  Ehrmann,  son  of  Dr.  Christian  Ehrmann,  a  noted 
physician  who  assisted  in  organizing  the  Homeopathic  College 
in  Louisville  where  he  was  professor  of  Theory  and  Practice. 
Their  son,  Dr.  Calder  D.  Ehrmann,  born  in  Rockport,  June  6, 
1878,  is  a  physician  living  in  Rockport.  On  June  23,  1902, 
he  married  Bess  Virginia  Hicks. 

The  father  of  Mrs.  Bess  Ehrmann  was  Royal  S.  Hicks,  who 
married  Rachael  Ann  Britton,  daughter  of  Thomas  P.  Britton. 
Mr.  Hicks  was  a  pioneer  of  Spencer  County  in  the  fifties, 
founded  the  Rockport  Democrat,  the  oldest  paper  of  Spencer 
County  that  is  still  being  published,  and  made  it  an  accredited 
organ  of  much  influence  in  southwestern  Indiana.  He  was 
born  in  Switzerland  County,  Indiana,  in  1825.  He  was  clerk 
of  Spencer  County  from  1856  to  1864. 

I  remember  distinctly  the  first  time  (in  the  seventies)   that 


2The  Patoka  River  was  then  navigable,  according  to  an  Indiana 
statute.  My  uncle,  Dr.  Thomas  Wheeler,  son  of  Mark  Wheeler  of  the 
English  settlement  in  Vanderburgh  County,  told  me  that  he  traveled  on  a 
small  steamboat  up  Patoka  River  as  far  as  Jasper. 

From  the  genealogical  record  of  the  Condit  family,  (descended  from 
John  Condit,  a  native  of  Great  Britain  who  settled  in  Newark,  New 
Jersey),  a  book  embracing  470  pages,  it  appears  that  the  Condits  were 
prominent  pioneers  in  Kentucky  and  Indiana.  Whether  any  of  them 
lived  in  Spencer  County  I  do  not  know,  but  there  is  a  good  deal  of  evi- 
dence tending  to  show  that  the  county  lines  between  W'arrick  and  Spencer 
Counties,  and  between  Dubois  and  Spencer  Counties  as  now  existing, 
were  not  much  of  a  division  among  the  pioneers.  James  H.  Condit  lived 
with  his  family  in  Warrick  County  before  he  lived  in  Dubois  County. 


The  Environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  181 

Royal  S.  Hicks  was  pointed  out  to  me  sitting  in  the  courtroom 
at  Rockport.  He  was  a  large  heavy-set  man  with  massive 
body,  and  an  unusually  large,  well-shaped  head,  with  a  strong 
face.  I  have  often  thought  of,  and  never  forgotten,  the  man 
as  I  then  saw  him.  He  ranked  among  the  prominent  men  of 
the  Rockport  bar.  A  biography  of  him  is  printed  in  the 
Biographical  History  of  Eminent  and  Self-Made  Men  of  the 
State  of  Indiana. 

The  introduction  into  this  sketch  of  the  name  of  Thomas 
P.  Britton,  who,  as  the  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Dr.  Calder  Ehr- 
mann, is  an  ancestor  of  some  of  the  latest  generation  of  the 
DeBruler  family,  is  germane  both  to  my  subject  and  to  this 
occasion.  He  is  of  importance  as  a  prominent  educated  man 
living  in  the  environment  of  Abraham  Lincoln  from  1825  to 
1830.  The  same  is  true  of  Judge  John  W.  Graham,  also  made 
relevant  by  the  marriage  of  Dr.  James  P.  DeBruler  to  a 
daughter  of  Judge  Graham. 

Thomas  P.  Britton  was  born  in  Monongahela  County, 
Virginia,  August  14,  1806.  He  and  a  brother,  Alexander 
Britton,  came  to  Rockport,  Spencer  County,  in  1825. 
Alexander  Britton  was  a  trustee  of  the  town  of  Rockport  at 
its  incorporation,  and  the  trustees  met  in  his  house.  He  was 
postmaster  at  Rockport,  and  was  town  treasurer  in  1854.  He 
is  named  in  the  local  history  of  Spencer  County  with  Daniel 
Grass,  Alexander  Britton,  John  W.  Graham,  John  Pitcher  and 
many  others  as  among  the  first  residents  of  the  town  of  Rock- 
port. 

Thomas  Britton  was  a  man  of  education  and  force,  and 
strong  personality,  as  appears  in  the  early  history  of  the  time. 
He  was  clerk  of  Spencer  County  from  1835  to  1845,  and 
recorder  from  1835  to  1842.  His  handwriting  is  said  to  be 
the  most  perfect  now  appearing  in  the  courthouse  files  of 
Spencer  County,  and  is  frequently  shown,  as  such,  to  visitors. 
The  Brittons  were  of  good  ancestry. 

Thomas  Britton  died  in  Rockport  in  1853.  I  knew  his  son, 
Thomas    P.    Britton,   Jr.,    who    lived   in    Evansville   and   left 


182         The  Environment  of  Abraham   Lincoln 

property  and  descendants  here,  also  his  son,  Frank,  well  known 
and  prominent  in  Evansville.  Both  were  men  of  ability  and 
high  personal  character,  universally  respected.  Thomas  P. 
Britton  was  sheriff  of  this  county  after  the  Civil  War.3 

One  incidental  reference  in  Mrs.  Eugenia  Ehrmann's  biog- 
raphy of  her  father  might  well  be  extended.  The  ancestor  of 
the  Indiana  DeBrulers  came,  by  way  of  North  Carolina,  from 
tidewater  Maryland,  out  of  a  settlement  of  French  Huguenots 
located  near  Baltimore.  This  is  not  a  unique  case  of  French 
Huguenot  ancestry  among  the  people  of  southwestern  Indiana. 
Dr.  Richard  deNune,  a  French  Huguenot,  lived  in  tidewater 
Maryland  in  or  near  the  locality  from  which  the  earlier 
DeBruler  came,  and  his  daughter,  Mary  deNune,  my  great 
grandmother,  is  buried  in  the  old  Iglehart  cemetery  in  Prince 
Georges  County,  Maryland. 


3Since  this  address  was  delivered,  a  paper  on  the  subject  of  Morris 
Birbeck's  estimate  of  the  people  of  Princeton  in  1817  was  read  at  the 
meeting  of  this  Society  at  Newburgh,  Indiana,  in  May,  1925,  by  Mr.  L. 
C.  Embree,  and  has  been  published  in  the  Indiana  Magazine  of  His- 
tory, Vol.  XXI,  pp.  289-99.  It  is  one  of  the  ablest  among  the 
contributions  extant  on  the  subject  of  the  environments  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  Indiana  between  1816  and  1830,  both  in  facts  conclusive  in 
their  nature  and  in  the  manner  of  their  presentation. 


